Wow what an awesome week! It's amazing how
fast time goes by when you're just focused on learning and growing.
There's still no word on our visas. All we know is that if we don't
leave this week then we can't leave until after the black-out dates
during Christmas - meaning we will be here until January! I don't think
our visas will come this week, but I guess they could give us another
reassignment before the black-out dates. But honestly I don't know, and
I'm not really worried about it anymore! This week was SO good, and I
know it's because I just didn't think about when I was leaving, or how
"burnt out" I feel. Our first teacher, Sun Laoshi came and talked to our
district and told us about this area she was in when she served in
Taichung. She said it was a very difficult area and her and her
companion faced a lot of discouragement the first week they were there.
Then her companion told her "Sun JieMie, I think we need to 'move in' to
this area" meaning they need to act as if they're literally moving in
and LIVING in that area. She said it made all the difference in the
world on their success.
I related that to my
experience here at the MTC. I think I've made this experience harder on
myself because I've been in the mindset that 'I'm about to leave', for
the past 3 weeks. After Sun Laoshi shared that with me I decided that
I'm 'moving in' to the MTC. It reminded me of this talk I read called
"Always In The Middle" https://www.lds.org/ensign/
Having this mindset has
changed my entire perspective on my mission so far and it's helped me
realize why I'm here. I realize that it's not about what I want. When I
signed up to serve a mission, I knew I would be sacrificing a lot - but
now I realize that my whole mission will be a lot of uncomfortable
changes, and a lot of adjusting to different surroundings.
So
this week, all of the Taiwan missionaries that are delayed/will be
delayed for their visas got together to say a prayer. We decided to pray
and ask for courage and motivation to continue to work hard, even
though we are all eager to leave. I knew that the prayer wouldn't
magically make our visas appear, but I think it did something ever
better. The other day, Sister Good, Sister Kirkham, Sister Oviatt and I
were walking through the French building to find one of our old teachers
before class and we came across a man named Jose and his wife Hely.
Jose was a 'gold tag investigator', meaning he is a guest at the MTC who
heard about our church somehow and is here to learn more. There are
gold tag investigators all over the MTC, which is awesome because they
aren't actors or anything so it gives us missionaries the chance to have
a real lesson with someone, not just practice.
So
he came up to us in the french building and started asking us a bunch
of questions about how we are learning Chinese in so little time, and he
asked us about Joseph Smith, and we just started talking with this man
for about 45 minutes, just answering his questions and sharing with him
our testimonies and they were both so touched. And the whole time I was
thinking to myself "man I wish I had my scriptures with me" and right at
that moment, I looked over at the table and saw a Spanish Book of
Mormon. In the French building. what!? So we showed him some scriptures
and he asked to meet with him again, so tomorrow morning we are meeting with him again!
Today,
we had to move out of our residence hall into a different residence
hall because of construction. After we did our laundry, we were walking
over to our residence to get our suitcases and Sister Good and I were
talking about how awesome it was that we met Jose, and then we walked
into 18M and there he was with Hely! So we went up and talked to them
and asked them how they were doing, and we told Jose about how we all
prayed together the night before we met him for motivation and help to
get through our MTC experience, and we told him that meeting him was the
biggest answer to our prayer and that we were so excited to teach him tomorrow.
Then he got all teary eyed and said that the day before he met us, he
was so sad and discouraged about something that had happened in his
family. He said all he wanted was a sign - and he said that when he met
us, he knew that God was watching out for him. It was so cool. Hely is
so sweet too, she asked Sister Good and I to teach her Chinese, so we
said we would do that for our language study with her every morning.
We
are just so excited to meet with these amazing people. I can't wait to
be doing this everyday on my mission. There's just something so powerful
about sharing your testimony with people who want to listen. And
although I know the work is going to be difficult in Taiwan, I know
there will be people that need to hear our message. I'm so excited to be
here and to be learning more Chinese and taking advantage of this time
to start learning characters, and for chance to grow closer to my zone,
district, and companion, and I'm grateful for the friends I've made, and
the goals I've set! This gospel is so true. There's absolutely no way
for me to deny it. I am so proud to be a missionary!
Well I hope you all have a good week and are enjoying to holidays! Read that talk by Uchtdorf if you get the chance!
Once we moved to building 3M, we lost our two roommates Sister Carlson and Sister Gardner. We will miss having them in our room!
Sister Crowell, Sister Payne and I. Going to Taichung soon! I will miss them when we go our separate ways (someday)!
I love these sisters so much! Sister Carlson (from Georgia) and Sister Gardner (from Pocatello) both going to Taichung
I love them! It has been so fun having them as my running buddies these
past two weeks. We made the goal to run a 5k together once a week, and a
mile everyday! Definitely couldn't do it without them. Sister Findlay
(from Murray, UT going to Taichung) and Sister Andrewsen (From Draper,
UT going to Singapore). Our new Sister Training Leaders!!
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